A look in to Intrinsic vs Explicit motives.
Deconstructing motivation and where it comes from.
In this post I'm going to deconstruct a theory about motives and what drive presides the desire to achieve a goal.
Let's start by defining the first two types of motives.
Explicit motives:
Motives that are driven by outward goals, for instance the drive to impress others, getting a new car, etc.
Implicit motives:
Motives that are driven by the inherent joy of a task, for instance drawing, just because you like doing it.
Now when looking at your own motives behind your goals you'll probably notice that they both contain an explicit and an implicit component. Is one inherently worse than the other?
Like with a lot of things, it depends.
In a study done by Poortvliet & Darnon (2010), it was found that for people who are less competent (less skilled, familiar etc.) it is best to be pared up with people who are intrinsically motivated to do a task.
However, when people are highly competent, extrinsically motivated people would be more likely to form a successful partnership with.
Now let's dissect that.
Implicitly motivated people are more mastery orientated. Which means that they will respond better to feedback on a personal level. For them it revolves around: What can they do to become better than they were before.
On the contrary, explicitly motivated people respond far better to feedback which has an absolute norm. For instance, say an explicitly motivated employee's sales are below expectations.
Giving them a target to work towards will help them to want to increase their output towards the desired target.
The next part's going to get a bit weird.
So what rewarding strategies can you use to keep people motivated?
Now explicitly motivated people are inherently motivated by reward. So that's taken care of. However rewarding implicitly motivated people is a bit more complicated.
Studies done by Lepper, Green & Nisbett, (1973) explored which effects rewarding implicitly and explicitly motivated people had.
Now in this study three types of rewards where defined. Expected, unexpected and no reward. The people that stayed implicitly motivated where the people that received unexpected or no rewards (verbal compliments work just fine as well). In fact, when implicitly motivated people received rewards, it can temporarily result them being dependant on rewards to do a task!
So handing out rewards might not be as desirable as you would think.
So this was a brief summation of implicit and explicit rewards. As far as most goals are concerned, most will have an implicit and explicit component. Congruency of motives is the most important factor. Are you getting the desired results both from the outward world as from your own inward enjoyment?
You'll find that sometimes explicit tactics will work better (if I get this done today, I'll treat myself) and other days you'll just really enjoy doing what you do.
Thank you for reading!
Also a thank you to the lectures of Nils Jostmann that sparked my interest in this subject.
POD.
References
Poortvliet & Durnon (2010). Toward a More Social Understanding of Achievement Goals: The Interpersonal Effects of Mastery and Performance GoalsLepper, Green & Nisbett (1973). Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Nils Jostmann's lectures at UvA Science Park.
Deconstructing motivation and where it comes from.
In this post I'm going to deconstruct a theory about motives and what drive presides the desire to achieve a goal.
Let's start by defining the first two types of motives.
Explicit motives:
Motives that are driven by outward goals, for instance the drive to impress others, getting a new car, etc.
Implicit motives:
Motives that are driven by the inherent joy of a task, for instance drawing, just because you like doing it.
Now when looking at your own motives behind your goals you'll probably notice that they both contain an explicit and an implicit component. Is one inherently worse than the other?
Like with a lot of things, it depends.
In a study done by Poortvliet & Darnon (2010), it was found that for people who are less competent (less skilled, familiar etc.) it is best to be pared up with people who are intrinsically motivated to do a task.
However, when people are highly competent, extrinsically motivated people would be more likely to form a successful partnership with.
Now let's dissect that.
Implicitly motivated people are more mastery orientated. Which means that they will respond better to feedback on a personal level. For them it revolves around: What can they do to become better than they were before.
On the contrary, explicitly motivated people respond far better to feedback which has an absolute norm. For instance, say an explicitly motivated employee's sales are below expectations.
Giving them a target to work towards will help them to want to increase their output towards the desired target.
The next part's going to get a bit weird.
So what rewarding strategies can you use to keep people motivated?
Now explicitly motivated people are inherently motivated by reward. So that's taken care of. However rewarding implicitly motivated people is a bit more complicated.
Studies done by Lepper, Green & Nisbett, (1973) explored which effects rewarding implicitly and explicitly motivated people had.
Now in this study three types of rewards where defined. Expected, unexpected and no reward. The people that stayed implicitly motivated where the people that received unexpected or no rewards (verbal compliments work just fine as well). In fact, when implicitly motivated people received rewards, it can temporarily result them being dependant on rewards to do a task!
So handing out rewards might not be as desirable as you would think.
So this was a brief summation of implicit and explicit rewards. As far as most goals are concerned, most will have an implicit and explicit component. Congruency of motives is the most important factor. Are you getting the desired results both from the outward world as from your own inward enjoyment?
You'll find that sometimes explicit tactics will work better (if I get this done today, I'll treat myself) and other days you'll just really enjoy doing what you do.
Thank you for reading!
Also a thank you to the lectures of Nils Jostmann that sparked my interest in this subject.
POD.
References
Poortvliet & Durnon (2010). Toward a More Social Understanding of Achievement Goals: The Interpersonal Effects of Mastery and Performance GoalsLepper, Green & Nisbett (1973). Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Nils Jostmann's lectures at UvA Science Park.
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